Emily Bergl

Anne Emily Bergl was born on April 25, 1975, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, to an Irish mother and an English architect father. She has one brother. Her family relocated to the United States when she was six, settling first in Denver, Colorado, before moving to Glenview, Illinois, where she completed her upbringing. She attended Glenbrook South High School and later Glenbrook South High School and Grinnell College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and theatre. During the spring of 1996, she studied with the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and she subsequently received additional training at HB Studio in New York City.

Bergl launched her professional acting career in theatre, appearing in a production of Romeo and Juliet opposite Neil Patrick Harris at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in 1998. The following year she took the lead role of Rachel Lang in the supernatural horror film The Rage: Carrie 2, the sequel to the 1976 film Carrie, a performance that earned her a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor/Actress in 2000. She appeared in the psychological thriller Chasing Sleep opposite Jeff Daniels and had a major role in Steven Spielberg's 2002 miniseries Taken, which brought her a second Saturn Award nomination, for Best Actress in a Television Series in 2003.

Her television work spans multiple series across more than two decades. She portrayed Francie Jarvis on Gilmore Girls from 2001 to 2003, Annie O'Donnell on the ABC series Men in Trees from 2006 to 2008, and Tammi Bryant on the TNT drama Southland from 2009 to 2013. From 2010 to 2012, she played Beth Young, Paul Young's new wife, in the seventh season of Desperate Housewives. She portrayed Sammi Slott on Shameless from 2014 to 2015, Lilah Tanner on American Crime from 2016 to 2017, and Tessie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from 2018 to 2023. She has also appeared in episodes of CSI: Miami, Medium, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NYPD Blue, Grey's Anatomy, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Bergl's Broadway career spans from 1998 to 2025 and includes productions such as The Rivalry, A Touch of the Poet, Becky Shaw, Good Night, Oscar, Just in Time, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 2009, she appeared in Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre. In 2023, she played June Levant in the Tony Award-winning play Good Night, Oscar, appearing opposite Tony Award winner Sean Hayes in the role of Oscar Levant. Her performance earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play. In 2025, she played Nina/Mary in the Broadway musical Just in Time, a jukebox musical featuring Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff as Bobby Darin. Her work on that production brought her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.

In addition to her stage and screen work, Bergl performs as a cabaret singer. In 2010 and 2011, she presented a cabaret show titled Kidding on the Square, which ran in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. The New York engagement took place at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel in September 2011.